Why do economies always crash?

Question

it can't just be the modern economy with shares and all that as economies used to crash in the olden days didn't they.

Answer 1

There is  no  answer because no one really knows but there are several different theories. you can read about them at

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_cy...

It is a only seen in capitilist economies with most people working for wages.

Answer 2

I wouldn't say that economy crashes. It just adjusts for changing environment. Sometimes it shrinks a bit (lack of demand or supply shocks) sometimes it grows (though with fluctuations) but it never actually crashes to zero-point. It may change form of activity, switch tools ( for instance from one money type to another), change structure etc. Needs of humans are dynamical thing (so resources for producing output are also volatile) and economy follows up to this dynamics.

But economy fluctuates because of external factors too, like policy/political power, speculations, corruption, etc.